Fox 2000 Silage Chopper

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Looking at the possible purchase of a Fox 2000 Silage chopper. For background purposes, I won't be using it very often....and when I do, it will simply be to chop hay that has sat in the field and got ruined by rain and hence is no longer acceptable for baling.

My question is this....can basic parts for this machine still be obtained? Mainly bearings and belts. The machine I'm pondering appears to be in decent condition for the price. Again, I'm not going to be chopping hundreds of silage wagons each year. In fact, on good years, I hope it'll never be used.

Thoughts?
 
Belts (and some bearings) can obtained fron JayDee Enterprises.They can supply belts for just about any application.Just give
them the OEM part number and they can cross. About half the cost of OEM. I use em frequently,especially my combine and baler.
Most bearing suppliers(that includes NAPA,etc) can cross the OEM bearing as well.A parts book will be your best friend.......
 
I bet that's the exact same as a 200 Massey? We
used to have one and I was told one time Fox made
them for Massey?
 
Interesting comment. At one time Badger Northland was owned by MF and Badger pretty much relied on their own engineers for products. There are similarities for sure between the Fox and Badger forage harvesters and I thought somebody in the know had stated Badger built their own forage harvester but that is not to say that Badger did not come to an agreement with Fox over using some ideas and paying a royalty. Too bad MF had the problems that they did during the 1970's. I don't think MF ever capitalized on Badger but too bad Allis Chalmers did not acquire Badger as that would have shored up their product line very well. I thought for the most part Badger built pretty good equipment.
 
I would not buy either a fox or gehl. What good is a machine that you can't get ant parts for other than bearing and belts? The amish now make almost every part on NH 717,770,890 and 892 choppers and there is very good parts support for Deere machines. Tom
 
The 2000 was a relatively common chopper in the Fox world- and it's bigger brother, the 3000 was arguably the best Fox built.

Hiniker purchased the Fox name, and for many years supplied parts. I'd check with a hiniker dealer as to what is out there. Belts can be matched by Jaydee or Napa. There was a former dealer, Works Implement
somewhere in Indiana, that does still sell a variety of Fox parts. Some aftermarket knife suppliers probably have knives and shearbar. Kooima might be a good place to start.

Those old girls would take a lot... I chopped many years with a 3000 with a 200+hp tractor tied to the front.

As far as I know, Fox did not make choppers for Badger or MF. They did make a few for Oliver, though. And the key words are "a few".

I wish you the best!
 
That is very true indeed,maybe it might have been Badger I was thinking of though? I remember quite well what the Massey looked like,never did see a Fox or Badger myself,I remember at least 10 years ago likely more machine specific parts were no longer available,our neighbors had a MF 260,was a workhorse in its day.
 
The 40 year old Fox is more of a chopper than a brand new Deere. Been there, done that. And the old NH's are total crap- worked for a guy who blew the main gear box out of a 900 3 years in a row.

For what he is doing, the FOx might be the best thing going... and it probably won't set him back much.If he is only grinding a few acres of hay back on the field, why curse him with a Deere???
 
A last comment... as for bearings, just about every one on a Fox is greaseable, and runs in a cast holder. Bearings like the cutterhead, blower, etc. are tapered roller bearings that can be adjusted. There
are virtually no bearings held in cheap, stamped steel flangettes like Deere and NH used. Grease her daily, keep the knives sharp, and she'll eat junk hay all day for not much $$$.
 
In my area it is either a Deere or NH 230-240. You can't give gehl or fox away. I have chopped 1000's of acres with Deere 35,38,3940 and 3960 harvesters and have never had any problems.The only way I would consider the fox is if I could find a second one to use for parts. The few days he will use it will be no fun when he has to find some small part that no one has. Tom
 
On a drizzly day a jd didn't feed corn well with the rubber gathering belts and you would find them parked in the yard, our NH never bothered a bit, I remember cutting corn for the neighbor with snow on the stalks, Fox cutters were the top of the line, parts availability did them and their resale in, if you can find a decent one it ought to work for you, I would be looking for a parts donor though.
 
Here in eastern WI, JD choppers were not common. JD dealers in the 70s and 80s often also sold Fox or Gehl, and that continued for a long time. We would do over 1000 acres of alfalfa, 150-200 acres of corn silage, and 100+ acres of corn stalks per season with a couple of Fox 3000s. They could work the 4850 for all she was worth, and chopper powertrain issues were nil. We upgraded to Gehl 1285s in 2002, and bought one of those new from the JD dealer. In the past few years, we traded both Gehls for NH 240s. The Gehl was a little bigger capacity than the 240, but it was time for something newer as acres expanded and I was concerned over parts availability- it should be noted that it was never a problem though. I traded the last Gehl this January, and the dealer has it sold.

There are still VERY few JD pull types around here, despite lots of dealers and very few chopper manufacturers.
 
I came from the east coast and there were a few Fox, a few Gehl,a good many IH, some NH and alot of Deere machines. The east never started chopping much hay untill thirty years ago and there are many harvesters that have never had a hay head on. You were more likely to find a direct cut head than a hay head. Dad had a new Fox 2100 and never had any problems. He traded in a Deere 35 with a one row head because the Fox pulled easier(His big tractor was a Deere 2520). Many farmers raised forage sorghum with there corn and it grew huge in our heat and often lodged. The older Fox,Gehl,IH and new holland machines would plug the head where the Deere would feed it right in.With the Deere head you had to stay on the row perfect or you would knock corn down. I want to someday put a NH 824 head on my Deere machine.Other than service we never have any problems with our Deere machines. We never push them hard as I can easily keep ahead of the wagons.I had two different Fox self propelled machines and hated both as they would not feed in big corn. The first was a super D with a three row wide head that was wore out. The second was a gas with a two row wide and it did work better but in big corn the corn wanted to fall forward out of the head rather than feeding in. They were probaly ok in 100 bu corn but big tall 200 bu corn would not work for me. I did like the sound of that Super D. The two Gehl's that I was around the most were a 1200 and and 865 and I thought both pulled very hard. The 1200 had a bad habit of shearing pins if you went around a corner with no feed in it.My next door neighbor has a 865 he bought new and he says my 3940 is almost twice the machine and is built much heavier. The Gehl uses lots of sheet metal compared to the Deere.I guess it is like everything else you learn to like what you have and many farms have been paid for with lots of different brands. Tom
 
My uncles were diehard John Deere men but they always had a Fox cutter.This was back in the sixties and seventies.I don't remember the models they had but they always said they were a good machine.I think the weak spot on them were the spouts.
 
For your purpose, it'll work fine. Bearings are all standard of the shelf, noting really to special there.

Most parts of the frame ate standard structural steel, so again, easy enough to make new if needed. We have a Fox 3000 that we got for free from a neighbor with the hay and 2 row corn head. Used it for a number of years until I just couldn't keep patching it anymore. Parts like the blower band are no longer available. Knives are expensive and any parts unit at the junk yard is already missing them. Personally, I'd avoid it because the model specific parts will be very hard to come by. We still use it to chip wood, but that's it. We replaced it with a new Holland 892. It's a stout chopper, and anything we needed we've been able to get. I also stumbled upona parts unit, so it's even better.

As far as badger, Massey, Fox, and Oliver goes, here's what I know.

Badger made choppers for Massey. Fox had nothing to do with badger. Oliver, while extremely similar and the heads would interchange, made their own choppers. Pretty sure they basically based them off the Fox units.

Badger Northland was in Kaukauna, Wisconsin, and Fox ess in Appleton, Wisconsin. A short 15 minute drive today from one building to the other. I think badger is now owned by Artsway and is simply barn cleaners, duets, and silo unloaders. Fox is owned by Hiniker now, and they are more than willing to try to help if you give them a call.

I grew up on the south side of Kaukauna, so lots of badger wagons, and lots of Fox choppers in their day. There are also other manufacturers that are from Wisconsin that are/were popular for forage wagons and other equipment such as Miller, Meyers, H&S, Gehl, Gruett, and Heubner. 4 of those are still going, and the other 2 are no longer in the game.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
Right from where I come from Fox would have been a pretty minor market share on pull-type choppers. NH and JD would have been the major brands. IH by the late 1970's would have been on the next tier maybe ahead of Gehl. There were a number of very popular IH dealers here at that time which helped. I could not tell you who had Fox around here as they were invisible in terms of dealers. Probably had the misfortune of being hooked up with dealers who were culled out by their major supplier by the time the 1970's rolled around. There were probably more Hesston's sold.

In summary.

1. New Holland. Many many dealers in New York held NH franchises. Unfortunately, it was feast or famine as you had either two strong lines for hay and forage or you had none for some dealers.

2. John Deere. Many dealers around before pull type units began sagging in sales. JD financing to boot.

3. International Harvester. Respectable 700 and 800 series and plenty of popular dealers.

4. Gehl. Good product. Tied in with both powerhouse dealers and dealers who were manhandled by their competition.

5. Hesston.

6. Fox. Not tied in with prominent dealers hurt them here.

7. Papec and the rest.
 
I can honestly say I've never seen a Papec unit around here. Lots of Fox and Gehl in their day, and even now there are still a lot of Gehl choppers around. I was never impressed much by Gehl units, but then again the closest representation I hadfof their footage harvesters was our neighbor who neglects everything. Long ragged cut, and the husk was never chipped if it started to turn brown. Meanwhile I could get our old Fox and now our New Holland will chop it all, and without a screen to rob horse power.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 
I can honestly say I've never seen a Papec unit around here. Lots of Fox and Gehl in their day, and even now there are still a lot of Gehl choppers around. I was never impressed much by Gehl units, but then again the closest representation I hadfof their footage harvesters was our neighbor who neglects everything. Long ragged cut, and the husk was never chipped if it started to turn brown. Meanwhile I could get our old Fox and now our New Holland will chop it all, and without a screen to rob horse power.

Donovan from Wisconsin
 

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